The Heidenheimer Bros. - Marine Building
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built in 1876 by German immigrant Samson Heidenheimer (d. 1891), this building has housed a number of wholesale and retail businesses. According to local tradition, Heidenheimer began business in Galveston prior to the Civil War as a street vendor, and during the war built up a lucrative business by dealing in cotton and blockade running. With his brothers, he opened a wholesale grocery business which operated under various names at this location until 1904. Suderman & Dolson Stevedores, a division of the Morgan Steamship Line, moved here in 1904, and during their occupancy the building was known as the Marine Building. The structure was sold to a New Orleans businessman, who lost it to a Houston bank in 1933. A member of the Heidenheimer family bought the property in 1941, and it changed hands several times in the succeeding years. An important commercial and historic landmark, the building underwent restoration in 1984-85. The two-story structure is of Victorian-era styling, with Italianate hood molds on the second level and ogee arches on the first story. Features include corbelled detail and exaggerated style elements incorporated into the stuccoed masonry. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
German immigrant Samson Heidenheimer built this Galveston commercial house in 1876, capping a rise that local tradition says began with him peddling goods on the street and, during the Civil War, dealing in cotton and running the Union blockade. With his brothers he ran a wholesale grocery here for decades before the building became home to steamship stevedores and earned the name Marine Building. Its Victorian-Italianate front, with hood molds, ogee arches, and corbelled detail, restored in the 1980s, still speaks to the port city's mercantile prime.
Why it matters
The building traces an immigrant's climb from street vendor to merchant prince, embodying the opportunity and risk of Galveston's booming port economy.
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Related people
- · Samson Heidenheimer
Themes & tags
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